Your Business: Workplace diversity - Murray Long, Murray Long Builders

The Murray Long Builders team, including Adam Smith (far left) and Murray Long (second from right).

Can you tell me about your business?

Murray Long Builders is a residential building company. We've been in business coming up eight years and I personally have been a builder for 26 years. We have eight people on our team - six builders on site and two of us in the office in Kelston.

What's your philosophy in regards to diversity in your workplace?

One important aspect of running a business for me is having a team of people who come together around at least one common purpose, which for us is enjoying building great homes and trying to include everyone involved in that enjoyment.

Beyond that, who we are as people creates our diversity. This might be expressed in having people from different backgrounds and family situations or belief systems or physical abilities. I think all of these things shape and add interest to the culture of our organisation.

Our team all have different back stories and childhood experiences, they come from different parts of the country, have had to grow through different life struggles or experiences. We have different personalities, beliefs about life and spirituality, and differing opinions on politics and worldviews. But providing there is a value we share, I think we can achieve really effectively as a team.

What are some of the things you've done in your business to make it a more diverse and inclusive place, and why - particularly in terms of how it helps your business?

We haven't set out to create a diverse workplace and, in many ways - and at face value - it could seem we're not that diverse. But I think diversity often lies below the surface in who we are. When we were given the chance to have Adam, who is deaf, join our team, we talked through this together and discussed possible complications in communication and differences in how we would operate that could come up.

After chatting it through, we decided that as a team we had a lot to give and in offering an apprenticeship to Adam, we could give him an opportunity that otherwise he wouldn't have got. Does this help grow our business? Not necessarily in the way that most people would consider growth, but it adds depth to the team, and builds strength and character in each of us as we give to another team member. Not every decision in business fits on the balance sheet - I think some are of much greater worth.

What were some of the practical implications of bringing Adam into the team?

For us, having a team member who is deaf has meant we've had to consider how we communicate, how we make sure everyone is kept safe, and how everyone understands what's happening at given times. It means that at our staff training we have interpreters there, who aren't initially part of the team. And it means we have to be more creative in how we teach, rather than just using words.

We're slowly trying to learn some New Zealand Sign Language also to help us to communicate what we need to. Deaf Aotearoa have been a big help in supporting us with this, and also helped us to coordinate a Deaf Awareness training day when Adam first joined the team.

If everyone is on board around our common purpose, none of these challenges are too big to overcome - they just become something we have to work with and learn through, and ultimately these mature the culture of our company. This naturally leads on to meaning that people who are, for all intents and purposes, different feel included.

What's been your biggest learning as a business owner about fostering diversity?

During a team day we had a year or so ago, we discussed culture and how each of us have our own personal culture that makes us who we are and in some ways defines us. We gave an opportunity for each of the team to talk about where they had come from in life, standout experiences that have shaped them, what interests they have and who has impacted them throughout their life.

This gave us an insight into each other and a greater appreciation for who we are as individuals in the team, why we might react the way we do, and why we would stand up for some causes but not others.

It highlighted that even though we have diverse backgrounds and that we're shaped differently by the experiences we've had, we still have the ability to create common ground, to come together around a common purpose and achieve great things together, while each being very different.

Coming up in Your Business: Getting the right staff on board - and keeping them - is the lifeblood of a business. So what are some of the things small business owners do to try and keep their good staff on board for the long haul? If you've got a story to tell, drop me a note: nzhsmallbusiness@gmail.com